UFC 125 Fight Card: Daniel Roberts vs. Greg Soto Primer

Grapplers Daniel Roberts and Greg Soto will start off the UFC 125 preliminary card at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The fight might be broadcast on tape delay during the Pay Per View event if time allows. Otherwise it should be available at UFC.com on Monday.

Both men are welterweights with strong grappling backgrounds. Roberts has an extensive amateur grappling background with NAGA titles and ADCC experience. Soto is a jiu jitsu brown belt under Kurt Pellegrino.

Roberts won Submission of the Night at UFC 121 with an anaconda choke against Mike Guymon. He beat Forrest Petz by split decision at UFC 116 and lost his UFC debut to John Howard via knock out. 

Soto beat Nick Osipczak at UFC 118 by unanimous decision. He lost his UFC debut against Matt Riddle at UFC 111 due to an illegal upkick. 

Either fighter could be cut from the UFC with a loss. 

Bloody Elbow's own Leland Roling broke down the bout:

 Daniel Roberts (11-1, 2-1 UFC) vs. Greg Soto (8-1, 1-1 UFC): Solid match-up here as Roberts and Soto are a bit of a style mismatch. Soto is more of the aggressor as he likes to wrestle opponents to the ground and utilize strikes from top control or transition to chokes. Roberts has the perfect style to counter that aggressiveness, although he also likes to impose his own takedown game before opponents can do the same to him. Petz showed that a good defense can stifle Roberts, but Soto will have to be on his game in order to repeat what Petz was able to do. Unfortunately, Petz was unable to produce enough offense, and Roberts came away with the victory.

The intrigue in this fight is whether Soto has enough technique and defense to run through Roberts and maintain top control while avoiding submissions. The Cesar Gracie jiu-jitsu fighter will be challenging to bring to the floor, but his submission game should be a concern for Soto, especially in instances where he leaves his neck exposed during shots. It's a tough call, but I think Roberts catches Soto in a choke at some point during the fifteen minute time limit.

Greg Soto's UFC 125 video blog is in the full entry.